Young Russian scientist Vladimir Arsenyev has been studying the Ussuri region of the Russian Empire. In the forest, he meets a hunter, Dersu Uzaloy, who becomes his guide and faithful friend. Dersu surprises Arsenyev with his excellent knowledge of the taiga, the ability to read it like an open book and his special relationship with nature. Traveling through the taiga, the group is faced with a tiger, which Dersu banishes with the power of persuasion. This, and many other adventures, some of which threaten life and limb, brings the Russian and Dersu closer together. The Russians must make it to the Sea of Japan by winter, which is rapidly closing in on them. Will Dersu be able to bring them to civilization and safety? This little-known 1961, Soviet version is the worthy predecessor to the 1975 version made by Kurosawa, which brought him back from the brink of a seemingly failed career.

IN RUSSIAN WITH SWITCHABLE ENGLISH SUBTITLES. APPROX. 81 MINS. VERY GOOD QUALITY FILM WITH SOME PIXELLIZATION AND UNSHARP FEATURES.

PLEASE NOTE THAT SWITCHABLE (SOFT) SUBTITLES WILL NOT SHOW UP WHEN VIEWING THE SAMPLE BELOW. IF YOU SEE SUBTITLES, THEN THEY ARE HARD-ENCODED (meaning, they cannot be turned off when viewing the film):

Set in the Asian forests of Imperial Russia around the turn of the century, Dersu Uzala tells of the relationship between a military mapping expedition and an old Tungus trapper who acts as its guide. The soldiers sit in the winter forest at night, uncomfortable and scared. There is a rustle in the bushes and, mastering the temptation to flee, they grab the intruder. He is Dersu, a short, stocky, aging tribesman. He sits by the fire with them and when a log crackles he speaks sharply to it. "Fire is a man," he tells them. "Water is a man, too." The captain, a sensitive intermediary between the brutal confidence of the soldier-surveyors and the mystical trapper, hires him as guide. In a series of episodes, we see Dersu, through the captain's eyes, reveal his total communication with the world he lives in. Seeing footprints, he knows that men have been by two days before and that they are Chinese. Seeing trees with the bark off, he predicts that they will find shelter; and they do. When the party is about to leave the shelter, he insists on repairing the roof first: for anyone else who may come along. In one of the more memorable scenes, Dersu and the captain go out to chart a frozen lake. Kurosawa films the cold as it has rarely, if ever, been filmed. It is a visible, red-eyed enemy; visibly terrifying. The two are lost and Dersu, seeing death, is in total fear. The captain has his civilized schooling to constrain him; he also has a compass. But when the compass ends up failing, then what?

PLEASE NOTE THAT SWITCHABLE (SOFT) SUBTITLES WILL NOT SHOW UP WHEN VIEWING THE SAMPLE BELOW. IF YOU SEE SUBTITLES, THEN THEY ARE HARD-ENCODED (meaning, they cannot be turned off when viewing the film):